Quilting is a sewing method done either by hand, by sewing machine, or by a longarm quilting system. The process uses a needle and thread to join two or more layers of material together to make a quilt. Typical quilting is done with three layers: the top fabric or quilt top, batting (filler sandwiched between two layers of fabric to give the quilt loft) and backing material. The quilter's hand or sewing machine passes the needle and thread through all layers and then brings the needle back up. The process is repeated across the entire piece where quilting is desired. A straight or running stitch is commonly used, and these stitches can be purely functional or decorative and elaborate.
Quilting is done on bed spreads, art quilt wail hangings, clothing, and a variety of textile products. Quilting can make a project thick or use dense quilting to raise one area so that another stands out.
Traditional, quilting is a six-step process that includes: 1) selecting a pattern, fabrics and batting; 2) measuring and cutting fabrics to the correct, size to make blocks from the pattern; 3) piecing blocks together (sewing cut pieces of fabric together using a sewing machine or by hand to make blocks) to make a finished “top”; 4) layering the quilt top with batting and backing to make a “quilt sandwich”; 5) quilting by hand or machine through all layers of the quilt sandwich; and 6) squaring up and trimming excess batting from the edges, machine sewing the binding to the front edges of the quilt and then hand-stitching the binding to the quilt backing. It should be noted, that if the quilt will, be hung on the wall, there is an additional step: making and attaching the hanging sleeve. For high volume operations, this multitude of steps is very labor and time intensive.
Therefore, it would be desirable to have a method of quilting that reduces the number of steps involved and speeds up production time.